XN000022-1995-11-02 — Page 111

98

(a) the total number of women employed in the industrial sector; and

(b) the person-times and number of hours of overtime work undertaken by women employed in the industrial sector this year, together with the number of those employees who were required to work beyond 11 pm?

Reply:

Mr President,

(a) According to the statistics of the Census & Statistics Department 176,350 women were employed in the manufacturing industry in June 1995, accounting for 44% of the total number of persons employed in the industry.

(b) The Women and Young Persons (Industry) Regulations of the Employment Ordinance regulate the employment of women in industrial undertakings in respect of the hours of employment, and overtime employment. According to Regulation 10 of the Regulations, any employer who wishes to employ women in excess of the working hours specified under the Regulations have to notify the Commissioner for Labour in writing before such overtime employment is to begin. During the first nine months of this year, employers from 1,551 industrial undertakings reported overtime employment of women under the above Regulation. A total of 39,345 women workers and 117,620 hours of overtime employment was involved. We have no statistics on the person-times of overtime work undertaken by women in the industrial sector. However, Regulation 10(2) of the above Regulations stipulates that no woman may work overtime in an industrial undertaking for more than 200 hours in any year or 2 hours in any day.

According to Regulation 8 of the above Regulations, the period of employment of any women in any industrial undertaking shall neither begin earlier than 6 am nor end later than 11 pm, except with the written permission of the Commissioner for Labour. In the first nine months of this year, such permission was given to the employment of 1,658 women in the industrial sector to work beyond 11 pm.

End/Thursday, November 2, 1995